An Airline Owed a Customer $680—and Its Plane Almost Got Impounded

A woman's suit against Thomas Cook Airlines led to victory in Austria.

Any frequent traveler knows the particular pain of a (very) delayed flight, and the only thing that could make it worse is an airline that takes forever to refund a fee or send out a voucher. However, a woman whose lawsuit against Thomas Cook Airlines resulted in a victory in Austrian court could be an empowering moment for us all. The unnamed woman, a German citizen, was booked on a Thomas Cook flight from Vienna to the Caribbean that got delayed a whopping 22 hours because of mechanical issues. Although she was promised $680 as per European Union regulations that compensate passengers based on the length of their delay, the woman got frustrated dealing with Thomas Cook's sluggishness getting her the cash.

The woman, however, was undeterred. She hired FlightRight, a claims company that fights airlines to get fees paid out (in exchange for a portion of the money), which won the suit in Austrian small claims court. A judge ruled in favor of the woman, then informed personnel at Salzburg Airport that they had the right to impound a Thomas Cook plane until the outstanding debt was cleared. Considering planes are worth tens of millions of dollars, that ruling got the airline's attention in a big way, and a rep from Condor, Thomas Cook's partner airline, promptly paid up. "We first heard of the claim on Friday, when we were notified by the airport in Salzburg," a Condor spokesperson told NBC News. "Once we heard of it, we immediately paid. We are very sorry that it took this long." A rep for FlightRight said that many airlines try to stall on paying out claims, hoping people will get fed up and not follow through. Only about 15 percent of EU residents who qualify for airline reimbursements even file for them in the first place, and we're guessing that most of them aren't as persistent as this woman.

Does this mean American domestic airlines could soon run afoul of the same public embarrassment? It's less likely, since the U.S. doesn't have the same protections for passengers as the EU. But we still love the visual of a woman towing a jumbo jet home with her behind her car or spray-painting "Property of Disgruntled Customer" on the side.